Public Hearing May Help Decide Beach Park's Fate

A state advisory board has decided that the future of Hollywood North Beach Park should be left up to officials from Broward County and the city of Hollywood.

Members of the state's Land Management Advisory Council suggested late last month that county and city officials should have a public hearing without state interference to discuss who will take over the county's lease to operate the park.

No date for the hearing has been scheduled.

The state owns five-sixths of the 56-acre park at the east end of Sheridan Street. The county owns the other one-sixth, but county officials hope to relinquish operation of the park to Hollywood. Despite some recent concerns, state officials hope that plan can be carried out.

"It appears that the county and the city had made some sort of agreement that the city would take over the lease ... but there has been some disagreement [by residents) of whether the city can manage the park properly," said Hank Vinson, staff member of the land management council that advises the governor and Cabinet.

A state official who inspected the park recently also has questioned whether the city can manage the environmentally sensitive land. Much of the concern was prompted by the discovery in May of piles of sand and debris dumped in and near the park.

David Stevenson, an employee of the Division of State Lands that serves as landlord for most state-owned land, led the inspection and stated in a report for the state Department of Environment Protection that "sand was dumped on sea grape trees ... by a front-loader or similar type of earth mover" at the corner of a lot on Evans Street near Surf Road.

Jose Vasquez, street and beach superintendent for Hollywood, wouldn't directly answer questions about the dumping, but said through city spokeswoman Christine Murray-Thrower that the city has taken care of the sand piles and that "the sea grape trees are fine."

"There are many unsubstantiated allegations as to what the city is capable of doing," Murray-Thrower said.

Stevenson's report stated, however, that "city staff conceded that city crews were probably responsible for the larger of the two sand piles [about 4 feet high)" and that "city crews were apparently ignorant of the sensitive nature of the coastal strand vegetation and that the unoccupied lots were convenient to where the cleaning was done."

Stevenson warned that the city must clean up its act if it wants to take over operation of the park.

"Based on the city's past record of managing natural resources, they would have to make vast improvements," he said in a recent interview.

In recent months, critics of the city said municipal workers not only had dumped sand, but had mangled trees and vegetation just north of the park in early May.

Mitch Drachman, a member of the Broward County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, said the city's maintenance record speaks for itself.

"The city has shown that it is not a good caretaker. They have a poor track record," said Drachman, who opposes the transfer of the park's operation to Hollywood.

Another opponent of the proposed city takeover, John Coleman, co-founder of Save Our Shorelines, is heading an effort to stop the lease transfer.

"Most of the problems associated with the area have been caused by the city of Hollywood," Coleman said.

Wayne Gould, beach maintenance supervisor for Hollywood, defended the city and its operations.

"We are not aware of any intentional dumping by any city employees ... there is numerous dumping going on that has nothing to do with the city."

Gould, who has been supervisor for nine months, also said, "I don't know what happened before I got here, but I've passed it on to my workers that we just don't [dump sand)."

If the city and county work out the transfer by Aug. 24, the Land Management Advisory Council hopes to give its blessing at its regular meeting on that date. If not, the issue will be discussed at its next meeting, Sept. 26.